“Plain old telephone service” (POTS) is ubiquitous in much of the world today. For a variety of reasons, however, cellular technology sometimes provides an attractive alternative to POTS, even for customers that do not need the mobility that cellular service inherently provides. For example, a low-income customer such as a college student may be somewhat transient, making repeated initiation and termination of POTS costly and inconvenient. The college student may share an apartment, rent a portion of someone else's home, or otherwise live in a situation in which expensive and intrusive rewiring of an additional POTS line would be unwelcome.
Provision of POTS requires the service provider to invest in infrastructure, such as placement and maintenance of buried and aerial telephone wire and cable, and of associated facilities. A significant portion of the populace may not have access to such an infrastructure. Even where the infrastructure exists, poor maintenance, and rugged conditions can impact the level of services. Thus, in some rural regions or developing countries, POTS is either unavailable or unreliable, with frequent outages and poor quality, even as compared to cellular service.
In these and other instances, cellular service would be preferable to POTS. Cellular service can be provided without installing and maintaining physical interconnections between the provider and the customer. The upfront and ongoing cost differentials between cellular service and POTS, however, present an entry barrier for many customers. The cost differentials are primarily attributable to the relatively expensive components in most cellular telephones, to labor and equipment required to activate the cellular telephone, and to monthly service charges for cellular service.
A typical cellular telephone includes a rechargeable battery, battery charging components, a display screen, an antenna, and electronic elements for providing continuous service while “handing-off” from one cell site to another. A basic non-cellular “land-line” telephone requires none of these elements to provide access to POTS, and thus is less expensive to manufacture. In fact, a cellular telephone can retail for several times the price of a basic land-line telephone.
The cost of cellular service is typically exacerbated by the “overhead” expenses incurred by the cellular service provider (CSP). Although cellular service is provided by a CSP, the customer typically purchases the cellular telephone from a retailer, such as an office supply or electronics store. Each cellular telephone must then be activated prior to first use.
In a typical approach, at the point of sale, the retailer collects the customer information that is required for activation. The information collected may include name, address, home telephone number, office telephone number, social security or other identification number, and payment information. The retailer then sends this information to a customer activation center (CAC). The CAC performs a credit check, assigns a cellular telephone number, and relays the cellular telephone number back to the retailer. The retailer then programs the cellular telephone number into the cellular telephone.
Either or both the retailer and the CAC receive a fee for performing or arranging for a cellular telephone number or programming the cellular telephone number into the cellular telephone. Thus, the need for an intermediate business or organization to obtain a cellular telephone number or to program the cellular telephone increases the cost to the customer or decreases the revenue to the CSP.
In another approach, the customer may order the cellular telephone through the mail or may purchase it directly from a retailer that does not perform the activation sequence. When the cellular telephone arrives, the customer must arrange to obtain a cellular telephone number for the cellular telephone and to program the cellular telephone number into the cellular telephone. To do so, the customer may directly call the CAC, either using the cellular telephone or another telephone. If the customer calls using the cellular telephone, the cellular telephone has a dummy Mobile Identification Number (MIN) which permits access to the cellular telephone network. This feature eliminates the need for the services of an intermediate business or organization because the customer communicates directly with the CAC. The CAC performs the credit check and assigns the cellular telephone number to the cellular telephone. The customer then manually programs the cellular telephone number into the cellular telephone, either by using the instruction manual or by listening to instructions from the CAC. In some instances, the cellular telephone is programmed to allow the CAC to remotely program the cellular telephone number into the cellular telephone. The need for the retailer or a service provider to program the cellular telephone is thereby eliminated.
Some customers encounter difficulty in performing the programming because of unfamiliarity with the concept of programming, or because of inadequate instructions in or loss of the instruction manual. In addition, for the CAC to assist the customer in programming the cellular telephone, the customer must be able to tell the CAC the make and, in some instances, the model of the cellular telephone. The make may be obvious if the cellular telephone is sold under the label of the manufacturer, but may not be obvious if the cellular telephone was sold under a private label. The model number, and any revision number, may not be listed or may be difficult to determine without opening the case of the cellular telephone, which may void the warranty. Consequently, a customer may find the self-programming approach somewhat frustrating.
In addition to up-front costs, cellular service may also be impracticable for some customers due to monthly service fees. Cellular service providers must also be responsive to the market demand for lower cellular rates. This demand is evidenced by frequent new and/or special rate plans advertised by various cellular service providers who must compete for customers as the market becomes saturated with cellular users.
Cellular customers typically pay a flat fee for service, and an additional fee based on the number of airtime minutes that the customer has used. Other cellular service plans may require the customer to purchase a bulk quantity of airtime minutes, for which the customer must pay even if the airtime is not actually used. Customers who choose to pay “by the minute” typically receive rates that are less favorable than rates available to those who purchase airtime in bulk. Furthermore, customers who choose to purchase airtime in bulk further reduce per minute rates by purchasing increasingly larger blocks of minutes. However, these bulk purchasers effectively ensure that their cellular telephone bills will never be lower than the minimum quantity of minutes purchased.
Airtime rates also typically vary based upon the time of day and day of the week. CSPs impose different rates at different times as part of the process of “traffic engineering.” Traffic engineering involves calculating and controlling the amount and location of communications equipment required to handle communications traffic, including telephone, voice, data, images, and video. Rather than simply installing expensive communications equipment to keep pace with traffic, many CSPs attempt to control expenditures by controlling the traffic. To encourage “peak shifting,” CSPs raise the per minute rates for cellular service during peak periods. For instance, weekend rates are lower than weekday rates, and nighttime rates are lower than daytime rates. These rate variations enable the CSPs to increase the efficiency of capital expenditures on infrastructure, such as cell site installations.
Each CSP must statistically determine the times and days that typically experience peak usage, and encourage customers to avoid using cellular service during those periods. Once peak and off-peak intervals are statistically established, the CSP creates rate schedules accordingly, which are then published to the customers of the CSP. The rate schedules typically impose the highest rates during statistically peak periods, which are usually weekday mornings and afternoons. Somewhat lower rates typically apply to statistically more moderate periods, such as weekday evenings. The lowest rates typically apply to statistically non-peak periods, such as weeknights and weekends. Actual usage patterns vary, however, according to any number of parameters, such as the season, local activities (such as major sporting events), holidays, highway traffic conditions, school terms, or the weather. Thus, a disadvantage of such statistics-based rate-making systems is that a CSP's rate schedule may discourage customer usage during a “peak” period that is actually experiencing low call traffic, and may encourage customer usage during an “off-peak” period that is actually experiencing high call traffic. The variability in the correlation between statistical prediction and actual call traffic can result in lost revenues and network overloads. Statistics-based rate schedules are also disadvantageous for customers, who may be unnecessarily discouraged from calling during unfavorable rate periods, which may last for hours.
Thus, there is a need in the telecommunications industry for systems and methods for providing telephone service that is less cost-prohibitive than typical cellular service, and that does not require the infrastructure of POTS.